11:52 a.m., March 7, 2011----Chaitan Khosla of Stanford University, who has conducted research on polyketide synthases as paradigms for modular catalysis and has exploited their properties for engineering novel antibiotics, will deliver the Robert L. Pigford Memorial Lecture at 10 a.m., Friday, March 18, in Room 102 Colburn Laboratory.

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The lecture is sponsored by the University of Delaware Department of Chemical Engineering.

Khosla, professor in the departments of chemistry and chemical engineering at Stanford, will speak on the topic “Modular Biocatalysts.” For more information on the presentation, see the abstract.

Khosla has co-authored more than 250 publications and 50 U.S. patents, and is the recipient of several awards and honors including the National Science Foundation Young Investigator Award; the David and Lucile Packard Fellowship for Science and Engineering; the Allan P. Colburn Award and the Professional Progress Award from the American Institute of Chemical Engineers; the Eli Lilly Award in Biological Chemistry, the Pure Chemistry Award, and Arthur C. Cope Scholar Award from the American Chemical Society; and the Alan T. Waterman Award from the National Science Foundation.

He was elected a fellow of the American Association for Advancement of Science in 2006, a member of the American Academy for Arts and Science in 2007, and a member of the National Academy of Engineering in 2009.

In 1995 he co-founded Kosan Biosciences, a public biotechnology company that developed new polyketide antibiotics and was acquired by Bristol Myers Squibb in 2008. He is also a founder of Alvine Pharmaceuticals, a company that is developing an oral enzyme drug discovered in his laboratory for the treatment of celiac disease, and of Flamentera AG, which is focused on the development of novel biomarkers for gastrointestinal diseases.

The lecture, which is free and open to the public, honors Robert Pigford, a founder of the UD Department of Chemical Engineering whose vision and leadership in the field made long-lasting contributions to the department.